1:32 Mitsubishi AAM-3 Short-range air-to-air Missile (2pcs)

The Japanese answer to the aging Sidewinder

The package holds two pieces of the AAM-3 missile, known in Japanese nomenclature as Type 90. Development ran at the Mitsubishi group from the mid-1980s with a clear brief: to replace the American missile that was reaching the end of its service with a domestic design that would tell decoy targets apart better and bear a sharper maneuver at launch. It entered service around 1990 and became the standard equipment of Japanese interceptors.

The recognition feature is the pairs of control fins at the front, whose shape differs distinctly from the American pattern, and the different layout of the stabilizing surfaces at the rear. Anyone building a model from a particular photograph has to reach for the right generation, because the domestic types succeeded one another over three decades and no one of them resembles another.

Where you will meet them

The carriers are above all the heavy interceptors of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and the lighter domestic type developed from the basis of an American fighter. Close-combat missiles hang on them at the wingtips and on the inboard pylons.

A casting allows a thickness of the surfaces that is out of reach for injection-molded plastic. During cleanup the fins must not be rested against the work surface, because under pressure they snap off at the root.

The finish

Live rounds tend to be light gray with narrow bands at the seeker head and at the motor, while training rounds have prominent colored sections. The bands come out better with tape than with a decal, which ripples on a rounded body.